Many automakers believe that the time to use carbon fiber composites in mass-produced cars has come, reports Marc S. Reisch in a cover story for Chemical & Engineering News. However, Reish writes, “if carbon fiber makers hope to gain more than a toehold in the auto market, they’ll have to make efforts on their own [...]
New pvT Testing Kits For Plastics
September 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
To enhance the design and processing of plastic materials, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which is the U.K.’s National Measurement Institute, has developed a pressure-volume-temperature (pvT) and thermal conductivity test kit with unprecedented temperature ranges, according to a press release. Angela Dawson, a Higher Research Scientist for NPL’s Materials Division, said in a statement: pvT [...]
Piezoelectric Polymer Tops Ceramics
September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Polymeric materials can exhibit 10 times more piezoelectric activity than crystals and ceramics, which are the strongest known piezoelectric materials. This “fundamentally new perspective in polymer science” could revolutionize electro-active devices such as sensors, energy storage devices, and biomedical devices, according to a statement from researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Technical University [...]
Big Environmental Footprints for Bio-Based Chemicals
September 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
Tens of thousands of bio-based products are currently being manufactured in North America. For example, large industrial companies are making feedstocks from soybean oil rather than petroleum. Though chemicals made from renewable materials may be popular and helping the chemical industry to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, a new study provides more data that bio-based [...]
Detecting Explosives Without Contact
September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
What analytical technique is sensitive enough to detect — from afar — traces of explosives left on a bomb-maker’s body or belongings? One that uses an eye-safe laser to detect nitric oxide. Kate McAlpine reports for Chemistry World: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, (MIT) have developed a laser-based explosives detector that can [...]
Plastic Bits in Ocean Traced to Clothing
September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Microscopic bits of plastic are ubiquitous in the ocean, and the majority of this microplastic probably sloughed off synthetic fabrics such as fleece jackets during washing, according to new research. Naomi Lubick writes about the research in Chemical & Engineering News: Although stories of large chunks of plastic trash trapped in the guts of seabirds [...]
Introducing New Plastic Materials
September 22, 2011 By 1 Comment
In a famous scene in the 1967 movie The Graduate, Mr. McGuire told Benjamin Braddock that there was a great future in plastics. He was right. Between the 1930s and 1960s, chemists invented most of the polymers used today, including nylon, polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, and polyester. But McGuire never said it would be easy to [...]
Polymer Gel Bandage Glows to Indicate Infection
September 21, 2011 By 1 Comment
Using a bandage that glows under ultraviolet light if a wound is infected could dramatically change a patient’s medical care. Now, scientists at Sheffield University in the U.K. have developed a polymer gel-containing bandage that fluoresces pink if the wound contains dangerous levels of bacteria. “As well as shining a spotlight on bacteria, the gel [...]
Polymer Cell Membranes Assist in Drug Discovery
September 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Madhavan Nallani, a researcher at Singapore’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, hopes his invention will help bring new drug therapies to patients in less time and at lower cost. His invention is making cell membranes from polymers. These artificial membranes can be used for testing how drugs work against their respective target diseases. Emily [...]
Converting Unrecyclable Plastics Into Fuel
September 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Carpeting. Construction and demolition plastics. Industrial polymer scrap. Laundry baskets. These kinds of items are usually considered difficult or impossible to recycle, and end up in landfills. Kelley Stoklosa of Recycling Today reports that several companies collect these materials and use technologies with minimal relative energy inputs to turn them into crude oil, natural gas, [...]
